X, Barbie & AI Symphonies
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #166 ❤️
We’re coming at you with this newsletter after an exciting week of news, from X (if you don’t know what we’re talking about you must be living under a rock) to Glassdoor via Barbie.
We’ll also be diving into the more existential questions of AI and creativity, and following up on last weeks dive into company love-bombing with more red flags to look out for when looking for a new job.
Let's get into it.
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#1 - Introducing X
After traumatising staff, changing the platform beyond all recognition and ensuring trolls get their say, Elon Musk wondered what else he could do to destroy Twitter.
Replacing the name and the emblematic bird image with his favourite letter seemed to be the next logical step. I mean, what is the loss of up to 20 billion dollars of brand value, really, compared to the edgy genius of the letter X…
It is becoming increasingly difficult to continually dig deeper into what seem to clearly be the actions of a man devoid of logical thought, but we struggle on.
The rebranding from Twitter to X is apparently the first step in Musk’s goal to change Twitter from a social media platform to an “everything app” – including banking, shopping and other features from our daily lives. It’s also going to be “powered by AI”, you know, that thing that Musk thinks is going to bring about the end of the world and was on a mission against until this week.
It also begs the question, did this lofty goal come before or after he failed at keeping it going as a social media platform, because it does seem to be the first we’ve heard of it. Linda Yaccarino too, we bet. Although she tweeted, (or x-ed, we guess?) about it with excitement, we can almost SEE her banging her head on the table.
Apparently, a “super app” platform has been an idea of Musk’s since the late 90s, as has his obsession with naming things “X”. Like his kids, for one thing, and Paypal – before he got kicked out. And while Yaccarino posted that there were “no limits” to this transformation, there actually really really are.
Some of them are tangible, like the difficulties of creating banking infrastructures, and others have been put in place by Musk’s continuing habit to run the business completely to satisfy his own whims.
Experts note that with decreasing brand equity and decreasing user experience, the artist formerly known as Twitter are starting three laps behind in the race to become THE app for everything, and in our opinion, that’s a very generous estimation.
We think one expert was more on the money when he doomed the app to failure as a 23-year-old business idea that didn’t work then, and is now being implemented in a much worse market position.
#2 - Barbie Marketing
Everyone online is talking about one thing – Barbie. And if they’re talking about anything else, it’s the relentless Barbie marketing. Some are sick of it, some are in awe of it, so let’s break it down.
Tom Goodwin, LinkedIn’s top voice in marketing, said we can learn the following from Barbie’s marketing:
- Start with 99% brand awareness.
- Do whatever you want.
And that they did. From pink burgers to real-life barbie dreamhouses, no stone was left unturned.
The most amazing thing about the Barbie marketing though, apart from it leading to this year’s biggest box office opening so far, was that it was contagious.
The Barbie brand has so much value behind it, and there was so much hype drummed up by this film’s marketing team, that other brands started jumping on the bandwagon to advertise themselves via Barbie advertising – hoping to get some of that awareness magic to rub off on them.
There has been SO much Barbie themed marketing, in the most surprising places (like an insurance company, Airbnb and Burger King), that it’s hard to know what was sanctioned by the brand team and what wasn’t.
However there are some subtle clues you can look for to decipher what is Barbie marketing and what is what we’re christening “Barbie-adjacent”.
For example, not using the word “Barbie”.
The Gym Shark home page has been recoloured completely in pink, with the genius tagline “I’m a barbell girl, In a barbell world”. It could just be passed off as a play on words, but the sub headline “we love pink almost as much as the main girl herself” is a big tell that they’re not using the name on purpose.
Similarly, the Heineken billboard ad in which we only see the end of the word - “ken”- with the tagline “Come on… Let’s go party”. Not mentioning Barbie, but still getting a piggyback off the brand. Corona beer are once again cursing the guy that came up with that name.
It’s inspired, it’s fun, and it’s in that sweet spot of close enough, but not close enough for a lawsuit.
#3 - AI And Creative Atrophy
Where does AI intersect with creativity? While for some people the act of creativity is held up as one inherently human thing that AI can’t replace, in practise it’s a little bit more complicated than that.
The Harvard business review suggests three possible futures for creativity in an AI-powered world.
Option one – a burst of innovation and creativity, as AI powered tools HELP rather than replace creative work, allowing for more output in the same amount of time.
Option two is the monopolisation of creativity by machines. If cheaper generative AI undercuts human content, there’s a risk that innovation will slow down over time as we make less and less new art and content. This could lead to a market where only the already established artists can break into the creative market.
For example the quintessential example of the AI actors in Black Mirror’s Joan Is Awful, if famous actors such as Salma Hayek can play every role, where is the opportunity for new actors to become famous?
The third option, and this could happen alongside the first two anyway, is that human-made innovation will come at a premium. AI will be like industrialisation for artisanal markets – you pay more for a hand-made vase, or a home-made loaf, well art and creative content will be the same. Sounds like an idea for a new Black Mirror episode if Charlie Brooker is listening.
In our experience we’ve seen how easy it can be to ask ChatGPT for ideas for projects such as social media posts with prompts like “write me a social media post about cocktails that is Easter themed” – the results are passable. For us, that would take creative thought.
Is creativity like a muscle, the more you use it the stronger it gets? If it is, ChatGPT will be leaving some people with creative atrophy.
#4 - Is Glassdoor The New Place To Be?
In the battle of the socials, after Twitter (X, whatever it is) blew the game wide open and Meta stumbled at the starting blocks, an unlikely new contender may be entering the market – Glassdoor.
How often have you wished you could anonymously blast your boss on social media? Or if not you, we bet millions of people have been dreaming of this moment for years.
While you could always leave a bad review of your workplace on Glassdoor, most people have had the decorum not to call out people by name or with specific actions. Probably because you get one go at writing your review, like any classic review site, and it’s done concisely and in most cases, politely.
Glassdoor’s new features would see the site taking a big step towards become a social network, following their acquisition of Fishbowl in 2021 – a site which worked a bit like chat rooms for working professionals, with different “bowls” for different interests.
These interests can be global, such as the existing bowls “Working Moms” and “Black in Tech”, but there will also be private company bowls, where employees can engage with colleagues and leaders.
Glassdoor’s CEO says this is so that you can “ask personal questions and speak your truth in a supportive space," and says employees "can engage in real talk with coworkers as well as people who can help their careers, and they get ahead together." Most importantly, in these conversations you can either use your name, your position in the company, or go completely anonymous.
We also predict this will be a HR nightmare. However, it may also go a long way in forcing companies to walk the talk when it comes to culture – there’s no hiding anything when you can get an anonymous username.
#5 - The Never-Ending Job Description
We’ve probably all come across these posts on LinkedIn. A company is looking for a copywriter, but they would prefer it if the candidate has expertise in graphic design and digital marketing too. Another has a post open for a content writer, but the ideal person for the job should also know how to edit videos.
Now, while it isn’t completely beyond the realms of possibility for someone to have these capabilities in tandem, job postings like this are rightly being called out as a huge red flag for various reasons.
Firstly, it signals that the hiring manager, and the HR team and potentially the rest of the office along with them, don’t necessarily understand what the people in these roles do. For example, in the case of graphic design and digital marketing (we have seen this one), if they aren’t both on the same syllabus of a course or degree, they aren’t the same thing.
Secondly, it can be indicative of a lack of respect for the competencies necessary to fill these positions. Expecting someone to know how to write content and edit videos and graphics suggests that the person wanting these roles filled thinks they’re both pretty doable with a basic set of skills – i.e. not that hard, i.e. not an important enough job to be respected by leadership.
Thirdly, job postings with a lot of different roles in one may be a sign that you’re replacing or taking on the work of more than one person. If there’s scope creep in the job posting, there’s going to be scope creep in the role, and that’s a red flag for burnout further down the line.
Recruiters need to know that a Jack of all trades is not the answer, and understanding and respect of roles is step one when it comes to looking for a new team member – even if that means a bit of research.
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Non Playable Characters
This week everyone is talking about the new streaming trend on TikTok, and it has raised plenty of eyebrows…
Tiktokers (read: young women) have been streaming for hours on end in character as “NPC”s – which stands for non-playable characters.
These are the characters in video games that you can interact with, but they aren’t played by anyone else. They usually have a set list of phrases they can say, and whenever you go over and talk to or click on them they reel them off indiscriminately.
Not newsworthy in itself, exactly, if it wasn’t for the huge amounts of money the streamers are making – up to $3000 per stream, with the top streamer in the domain having made $7000 in one day.
They’re paid via gifts sent by people watching which pop up on the screen in the form of emojis and elicit a certain reaction from the streamer. It’s weird for a number of reasons, but it’s happening, and it’s lucrative.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.